City proposes new Occupy SF encampment

SAN FRANCISCO 
Occupy SF members were given an ultimatum by the city Tuesday to move their encampment in the financial district to an empty school in the Mission district by Thursday - or risk a raid.

Gene Doherty of Occupy SF said the city gave occupiers notice Tuesday, telling them that they need to pack up some 150 tents and be out of Justin Herman Plaza, where they have camped out for some six weeks, by 8 a.m. Thursday.

He said the city told them they could take the day Wednesday to work out logistics for the move.

The new area would allow occupiers to have access to toilets and a room for their daily meetings, while camping out in the parking lot of what was once a small high school. It would also allow the Occupy SF movement to weed out the alcoholics, drug users and homeless people who have joined their camp and are not wholly committed to the cause.

The anti-Wall Street movement is attempting to highlight the growing inequities between the rich and poor. Several hundred members of the San Francisco movement met for several hours Tuesday night to determine whether to stay, or go.

Some say being forced to move from the public plaza in the heart of the city's tourist and business district is a violation of their freedom to assemble.

"This is really a struggle for democracy," Doherty said. "There are people who absolutely would like to refuse. There are strong personalities on both sides of the debate."

He said there is tension among the occupiers, not all of whom are eager for a confrontation with police. Occupy encampments in other cities have been broken up in police raids that led to clashes.

"Adding that threat of violence over us - it doesn't allow people to think with a clear head," said Doherty. He added that some people were already packing up and planning to head to the new space on Wednesday.

The occupiers were told by a former teacher at the vacant school and others who investigated the site that there was a problem with rats at the site. Some of the Occupy SF members said they would investigate further on Wednesday, but that if it proved to be true, they would feel betrayed by the city.

"The city is trying to push us under the rug, hide us away," Doherty said. "We have to consider them allegations at this point, but if they are true, then there's a real problem. There's already a sense of distrust with the city, and this doesn't help."